i'M HaViNg a SaLe

Clip art is from Ashley Hughes at The School Supply Addict

Just wanted to write a quick post about having a Sale at TpT from 12/30-1/1.  Click on the picture above and stop on over if you get a chance!  I just posted a new product on Nonfiction that is easy to use for anyone in grades 3-7 and you can incorporate your own articles, books and stories so you can differentiate.
I'm going to post more about it a little later!
I hope everyone is enjoying their break!

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2012 Bloggy Best and Brightest

Christina at Bunting, Books and Bainbridge set up a great linky to celebrate the close of 2012.

I'm relatively new to the blogging world. I got started in August of 2012 and have slowly been figuring out this whole teacher blogging process.

My Brightest Blog spot I would have to say is actually STARTING the blog to begin with.

My interactive Math Notebook posts have been getting a lot of looks.  

My Exponents Foldable and my post about the BIG TIME need for MATH VOCABULARY was pretty popular.

My BEST Blog news of the year is winning a Liebster Award.  That was a great opportunity, and came at a time when I wasn't sure if people were really interested in what I had to say.  I was nominated by Gina at Beach Sand and Lesson Plans.... I have to give her a shout out, I'm partial to her name since it is so similar to mine.  She has a great blog!

The BEST Products I created were my Wacky Wordies Fraction Task Cards and My Turkey Survival Kit. My sixth grade smarties LOVED both of these activities in my classroom.  

Finally, my Best Freebie is just a simple writing activity for Character Education that I created to go with a lesson at school on Bullying.  I used it with a book called Just Kidding.  The post link is above. I received a lot of positive feedback at school for it, and considering all of the recent events at Sandy Hook, I believe it is a lesson my students will take to heart.  You can download it here.

Check out  Christina's Blog and her linky at 2012 Bloggy Best and Brightest and leave a comment or two here if you want to share the love!

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Friday Flashback with Amanda at Teaching Maddeness

Happy Friday all!  I hope you all enjoyed your last few days before your Christmas Break!
I'm linking up with Amanda at Teaching Maddeness for a Friday Flashback Linky!

This week my class was really busy.  We spent some time talking about Sandy Hook Elementary and what our class and school plan was for a lockdown.  Many of my students wanted to write letters to Newtown and I believe it was a helpful way for them to express their feelings.  We came upon the Snowflake Project, where schools from all over the country are sending snowflakes to Sandy Hook so they can have a Winter Wonderland to return to.

Didn't they do a GREAT job!!

 

We also started a new unit on Decimals.  We reviewed Addition and Subtraction of Decimals and then started to practice Multiplication.  A lot of my students learn lattice multiplication in elemtary school and they STRUGGLE with decimals.  I have to reteach traditional and it always takes a TON of time.  One nice thing was they practiced word problems using by Wacky Wordies. 

  I made a Christmas edition and the smarties loved it. I'm in the process of making a Decimals Wacky Wordies that is NOT Christmas-y but I've had too many presents to wrap lately!

Finally my students had a lot of fun practicing their Sequence and Alliteration skills.  I used a book called The Gingerbread Girl. Aren't they too cuTe!

If you get a chance link up with Amanda for a Friday Flashback!!

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Inequalities in my Math Notebook And Wacky Wordie DECIMALS for Christmas!

I love that I started using my Interactive Math Notebook this year!  We've had a few new things to learn as Sixth Grade Smarties.. inequalities just about put us over the edge earlier this year, but one thing that came out of it was the investment in our Math Notebooks.  I LOVE using these!

For our inequalities, we had to practice reading statements and graphing on a number line.  I had students color code the greater than, less than signs and then box the signal word within the statement.  This was defiantly one of the more difficult topics for them.  I know I will be putting them on our Weekly Review Sheets for extra practice.

Now that we are into decimals, I'm so happy that they feel comfortable with math again.  This week we are reviewing adding, subtracting and multiplying before break.  I can't wait to use my Wacky Wordies DECIMALS pack on Thursday! My students are excited to get up out of their seats and move through the Task Cards.  I think they are happy to get to use their calculators too!

What are your math plans before break?  How are your students doing with the Common Core Math Changes?

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Silence for Sandy Hook Elemetary

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

(Thank you MelonHeadz)

I'm participating in a Teacher-Blogger day of silence in honor of those who were tragically taken too soon.  Use today as a day to honor and remember.
My daughter is already texting her friends about wearing GREEN and WHITE to school on MONDAY to honor those who lost their lives..Can anyone confirm these school colors for me?  
Pass it forward!

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12 of my FAVORITE things on 12-12-12

12-12-12.. can you believe it!  What a great day to be a math teacher!  I love days like this.. so many possibilities!  I'm partial to 11-11-11 actually, that is my daughter's birthday... Last year she turned 11 on 11-11-11.  We celebrated by surprising her and taking her on a tour of the White House.  She was UBER excited.. we met Bo the President's dog.. very cool.

In honor of such a great day, I'm linking up with a few peeps over at Miss Kindergarten and A Teeny TIny Teacher  to celebrate their 12 in 12 Favorite Things Linky.  

Here are mine:
12:  Favorite Movie of 2012- Batman Returns.  This morning was so cool.  I loved all the twists and turns and suspense.. and special effects.. My Inner Geek was so excited!

11:  Favorite TV series:  Hmmm this one is difficult.  I don't watch a lot of tv.  I guess I'm partial to the Big Bang Theory.. again.. Inner Geek.. BAZINGA

10:  Favorite Restaurant:  I like Pizza.. my favorite place is a tiny artsy, crazy, pizza joint that thinks its a junkyard in Gainesville Florida called Satchels. CHOMP CHOMP

9:  Favorite new thing you tried in 2012:  Blogging.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to put myself out there, but I'm glad I did.  Now I am patiently waiting for my blog redesign... I can't wait... it is HARD to be patient!

8:  Favorite gift you got:  My red Converse sneakers.. they were a Back to School present.

7:  Favorite thing I pinned:  Totally back to my Inner Geek.. and I can't pick just one...

6:  Favorite Blog Post:  Writing about using my Interactive Notebook and the different foldies I've made with my students.  I love my Math Notebook, and my students are really taking ownership!

5:  Best Accomplishment: Working and teaching with other teachers through my classroom and blogging.  Having the courage to stick with blogging when I wasn't sure people would be interested.  

4:  Favorite Picture:

The kids thought they were so funny "tricking" us into standing in the Splash Zone..Ha








3:  Favorite Memory of 2012:  Our family trip to Universal Studios.  We loved going to Hogsmeade and drinking Butter Beer.  My son rode the Hulk roller coaster and it was quite a thrill!








2:  Goal for 2013:  Continue to work on improving my Blog, Posts and TpT store.  Getting back into running again.

1:  One little Word:  PERSEVERANCE

Be loud, Be proud, Be ORANGE 

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Fraction Action Fun with Friends!

This week my Smarties will be finishing up a unit on Multiplying and Dividing Fractions. 


 The changes in the Common Core for me in Math this year really have me scrambling.  I am required to teach Division of Fractions to my sixies.  To do this, of course I have to teach Multiplying Fractions.  All well and good... We worked our way through various visual representations last week and learned a quick song to remember the steps to division:  My song is to CELEBRATION if anyone is looking for a way to remember it.. leave a comment at the end of the post and I'll blog about it.

What I'm having trouble with is that I don't have any Addition or Subtraction of fractions this year.  I SHOULD be doing the happy happy happy dance.  This is ALWAYs a difficult topic.  But I"m worried that because I am not required to teach it, and frankly don't have a LOAD of time to do so, that these sixies will be lacking in the fraction understanding department.
That being said, I made a little FRACTION ACTION with FRIENDS review game to help practice these skills next week before we leave for WInter Break.  I figured I could get a day or two in or review and teach some basics after I assess Multiplication and Division this week.
I'm using my WACKY WORDIES HOLIDAY PACK 

and also this new FRACTION ACTION with FRIENDS game that I just posted. 

You can check them out in my TpT store.

Have a great week everyone!

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CUrrEnTLy and Giveaway Reminder!

It's the beginning of December and I'm linking up again with Farley for CURRENTLY!!

My daughter is a middle school Tuba master.. hee hee that makes me laugh.  Who woulda thunk my little sporty girl would love playing her tuba!   I can't wait for her Christmas concert next week.  

Doesn't it always feel like December is soooooo crazy busy?  My kids have THREE concerts next week!  When will I ever have time to bake cookies!  I found a new recipe too... for S'mores cookies!  I can't wait to try them.  My little man has a peanut/tree nut allergy so he doesn't hardly ever eat cookies.  But I found a sweet little company started by a mom who has a little man of her own with a peanut allergy and she sells chocolate chips that are completly nut free!... You cannot even imagine my glee and excitement over this!  I can barely contain myself.

Last.. Did I mention my love of Dunkin Donuts?  maybe I'm a little obsessed... anyhoo.. I am really excited to try their Peppermint Mocha coffee... its' on my to-do list for Friday afternoon while I have to wait for my daughter at an appointment.  Since I already seem to spend a lot of time in the Dunkin Drive thru I paid for the order of the car behind me... and that's my RAK for the month.

Don't forget to head on over to see Farley at "Oh Boy Third Grade" and link up!  Be sure to check out the Currently's before and after you and leave the peeps a little LOVE.

AND.... since you bothered to read all the way to the bottom of this post today.. don't forget that I am having a giveaway of my Gingerbread Cookie Survival Kit.

If you follow my blog and leave me a comment.. I'll be choosing a winner on FRIDAY!

You can check out the post here and the item at my TpT store!

Happy Blogging to all and to all a Goodnight!

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Gingerbread Cookie Survival Kit! Giveaway!!

It's the holiday season and that means oodles and oodles of baking and singing and Holiday concerts in my household!  I love love <puffy heart> love Gingerbread cookies.
I was a little sad around the holidays when I began teaching my middle school smarties because I couldn't do any of my favorite activities with some of my Christmas books.  I love reading all of the Jan Brett books, and also all of the silly books like The Redneck Night Before Christmas.  Then a few years ago I thought.. hey why not?  My eleven and twelve year olds love hearing those stories too. So, I started reading The Gingerbread Baby again.  I stumbled across The Gingerbread Girl this year.  

Have you read this book?
It is totally fun.  There is a lot of figurative language in it, so I am planning to use the book in a center to reinforce those skills.  A few weeks ago when I was looking ahead to December......
 KA- BAM.... KA-POWIE... KA-BOOM.. it hit me!  
A GINGERBREAD COOKIE SURVIVAL KIT!!!

I've been working on this for a while and finally finally finally got it finished and uploaded to  MY TpT  STORE.  It is very similar to my Thanksgiving Turkey Survival Kit, but it uses three common Gingerbread books:  The Gingerbread Boy, The GIngerbread Baby and The Gingerbread Girl.  I am so excited about this product.  I'm going to give one away to a lucky blog reader!
Here is what you need to do:
1)  Follow my blog and leave me a comment below letting me know you did.
2)  Let me know your favorite activity for the Holiday Season.
3)  Leave me your email address so I can contact you.

On Friday,I will randomly pick a number from the comments left and send you the GINGERBREAD COOKIE SURVIVAL KIT for your very own.. super duper use in your classroom.

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